Thursday Nov. 4
KMFDM
9:30 Club
Industrial-metal band KMFDM just might get political the night after the election, which is not all that surprising, considering the same band that declared “A Drug Against War” and WWIII will be performing only blocks away from The White House.
“If Bush gets re-elected, we are going to pack up and head to Canada,” said lead vocalist Sascha Konietzko. But hopefully he’ll wait until after his American tour.
KMFDM often finds itself entangled in history. The most striking example occurred when the media linked the hardcore band to the Columbine shooters. “The Columbine thing took place at a time when KMFDM had declared its own end. So at the time, KMFDM was dormant or on hiatus or whatever.”
KMFDM stretches back two decades. Konietzko remembers, “At first we were just kids basically tinkering around, making like strange little recordings, and somehow it picked up speed and became a precision machinery of sorts.”
The evolution of KMFDM is historical in itself, but the music has consistently delivered a fresh message with a “very wide spectrum” of sound “from pure punk rock to electronic dance-floor type stuff.” Fans can look forward to hearing both old and new songs and witnessing living legends as they celebrating 20 years of hardcore music.
-Richard Fleming Hagerty
Monday, Nov. 8
Muse with the Zutons
9:30 Club
Currently on its second U.S. tour after the 2004 Curiosa Tour, prog rockers Muse bring their ethereal, grandiose rock to fans hungry for the distorted guitars and a lofty-pitched vocals popularized by the fellow-Brits Radiohead. But unlike the band’s own creative Muse, it captures characteristically dramatic shifts in volume in classical sensibilities and apocalyptic themes.
Muse’s concertedly groundbreaking third album, Absolution, runs on a suitably bleak premise: The world is coming to an end and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Released in the U.S. nearly a year after its U.K. date, the band has no doubt had a reputation that preceded it. But while some listeners have embraced the lush instrumental assault, others have been turned off by its pretentious, hyper-extended breadth.
-Sacha Evans
Tuesday, Nov. 9
Interpol
9:30 Club
Pop-goths and English majors rejoice! Hope (or perhaps I should say, lack thereof) is on the way, in the form of Interpol, who make music played at absinthe-fueled midnight masses and “The O.C.” The New York sadsters sound like a poppier version of Joy Division, as it has the benefit of singer in Paul Banks, who comes across not so much as depressed as just generally bummed out, whether over a tragic girl or that coffee stain on his black couture.
Banks’ near-monotone voice weaves melancholy through atmospheric, almost oppressively heavy melodies, which makes for the most hummable sad-core you’re likely to hear, at least until Andre 3000 decides to write that goth-prog rock opera (you know it’s coming). Interpol’s music is gorgeously textured and its general aesthetic is just as majestic as it is sad. Each track is more an ethereal soundscape than simply a song, and the band leaves you deliciously unsatisfied, grasping for more of the gloom. Supporting its new album Antics, Interpol arrives just in time to bask in post-Halloween murkiness with openers The Secret Machines.
-Jeffrey Parker
Tuesday, Nov. 9
Avril Lavigne
George Mason University Patriot Center
Criticized for sporting a faux-punk look alongside the upbeat, pop sound of her 2002 debut album Let Go, Avril Lavigne, 19, attempts to break her bright, youthful image with her new album Under My Skin. Lavigne began working on the album immediately after her 2003 tour, collaborating with singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, 31, to create 12 songs in only two weeks.
The songs on her new album are a bit rougher and edgier than those on Let Go, but Lavigne’s lyrics still convey the same defiant, individualistic voice that fans admire. She articulates every word, avoiding the muddled lyrics other rock personalities use to convey emotion. For many of Lavigne’s songs, her simple and realistic delivery is enough to carry Under My Skin to a more mature level than her previous work.
Just off her two-month promotional mall tour across the United States, Lavigne will perform at the George Mason University Patriot Center, most likely with her pop punk energy replaced by the older, wiser sound of her new album. However fans can still expect the show to be swamped by the scads of teenage girls.
-Jenna Green
